My SO and I are planning on a non-denominational wedding. My family is Jewish and his is Catholic, but we choose to not participate in religion. My family wants us to be married by a rabbi, but it is not even possible (both parties must be Jewish to be married by a rabbi). His family wants a Catholic ceremony, but that it not something we are comfortable with. I’m wondering how to bypass the issue of religion in our wedding and still keep family members satisfied.

Have any of you had non-denominational/non-religious ceremonies? Who officiated? How did your family react?

Why not do an interfaith ceremony? There are plenty of Rabbis who will and do participate in interfaith ceremonies. Google interfaith officiant. Then, build a ceremony that reflects both traditions — stand under a chuppah, smash a glass, etc.

I can totally empathize. :-/. My DH is Presbyterian and I’m Catholic. Both of our families are very devout but we’re not so we went the non-denominational ceremony way. I think both sets of parents (and some family members) were upset but hey, it wasn’t THEIR wedding. My advice would be to figure out between the two of you what elements of your spectacle life stories will make it FEEL like a wedding to YOU. Then include those elements in your ceremony. What’s important is that you has feel like you’re married and had the wedding that you wanted. Although I’m not a practicing Catholic, for example, I chose the on-denominational Christian ceremony and when we got to the officiant and turned to each other and the officiant said “…here we are under God’s sky…” I got chills and goosebumps and my heart swelled with emotion. And that’s when I said yup I needed to hear something along those words for it to feel real. We felt/feel married. So nowadays when anybody asks so what church did you get married in? Or other annoying comments it’s just an annoyance but not a omg-I’m-so-upset feeling, or yea-I-let-everyone-down-feeling ya know?

busybee3791: FI and I are in almost the exact same situation, except reversed! It was actually important to him to incorporate some Jewish traditions, though, so we are having a secular wedding (we’re getting married by a Justice of the Peace) but are including the stepping on the glass thing and a few other, small traditions. My mom really wanted us to get married in the Catholic Church, but it isn’t going to happen (he’s Jewish and I don’t even really identify as Catholic), so instead we’re going to have 1 traditional Catholic wedding reading (and maybe something else, too). Obviously, it’s your decision, but I found that it was worth it (and meaningful) to think about including some small religious traditions into an otherwise secular wedding ceremony. It makes everyone happy and it doesn’t take away from what we want. Good luck!

We are having a 100% secular wedding. Our officiant is a JOP. His family doesn’t care, they’re not religious. My mom was actually vaguely upset that it wasn’t a catholic wedding, even though she’s not catholic. My father was a lapsed catholic, and she has this odd notion that since he was catholic, the faith somehow was supposed to be inherited. I very nicely explained that a catholic wedding would be impossible, as I’m divorced and we’re atheist. Once we got past her initial suggestion of lying to the priest, she accepted it.

Your families will just have to get over it. Don’t try and fake a faith just to make them happy for a day.

I simply don’t care if religious family members take issue with our non-denominational ceremony. Your wedding ceremony is to officiate the marriage between you and your fiance, not you and your family.

If your beliefs don’t allign with theirs on a regular basis, why should they on one single day? I think its disrespectful to fake a faith you don’t believe in for the sake of other people.

I performed a ceremony for 2 friends. She was spiritual and he was raised catholic. They decided on a secular ceremony.<br /><br />I don’t think anyone got upset at THEM, but some cranky family members approached me and quizzed me on where I got my certification (online) and training.